My 85 yo mom wants a foodsaver for Christmas. I havent' any idea why since it's just the 2 of them but first of all, I can't even afford one. I saw a $9.00 Reynolds handi-vac and I wonder if that would work pretty much the same. If anybody owns one, how do you like it? I heard the Foodsaver were kind of touchy and I wonder if mom would even be able to operate it. But if the other works fine, maybe I'll get one of those. Opinions wanted please. Thanks!!!!!!

I had a Food Saver. Gave it to my DD. Never even used it. Anything that comes with a video to watch to learn how to use it is too much of a PITA for me.

Now I have a Handy Vac and love it. There's only two of us, but I often buy family packs of meat and break them up.

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bite me and get a brain!

The Handy Vac on the TV commercial looks like you pump it and the commercial said it's around $4. But in the store it is battery powered and costs around $10. So where do I find the $4 one? And does it work as well as it looks?

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

I have one of the hand pump thingies, Ziploc makes it, cost me about 5 bucks when I had a coupon. Doesn't work as well as a Food Saver, but works better than my usual method of sticking a straw in a freezer zip bag and sucking out as much air as possible. Need to use special ziploc bags with it that are pricey, so I only buy them when I have coupons. The kids have a lot of fun using it, I've gone back to cheap freezer bags and the straw.
MZ

I use my Foodsaver daily and I love it. I haven't seen the other one you are talking about and don't think it does all the foodsaver does.

I use mine for:

brown sugar: I use the canisters and brown sugar stays soft....so nice

lettuce: salad stays fresh in the canisters

chip bags: you open them, take chips out for lunches, reseal the bag. They stay fresher than with a clip and stay crunchy

cheese: I buy the big ol' bags of shredded cheese at Costco. I use it, reseal the bag or keep the cheese in a canister.

Meats: I use the foodsaver to do quick marination of meat. When you pull the air out of the bag, you suck the marinate into the meat

I have never had frost bite or bad odor from my foodsaver bags. I can't say the same for ziploc. I have never watched the video...LOL...didn't know there was one! My dad uses his daily as well. The canisters you can buy are the real bonus. Food stays fresher so much longer! Dad cooks up big batches of soup and it stays much longer than normal. He hates to freeze portions (as do I).

Next to my coffeepot, my foodsaver is the most used small appliance

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I use my Foodsaver daily and I love it. I haven't seen the other one you are talking about and don't think it does all the foodsaver does.

I use mine for:

brown sugar: I use the canisters and brown sugar stays soft....so nice

lettuce: salad stays fresh in the canisters

chip bags: you open them, take chips out for lunches, reseal the bag. They stay fresher than with a clip and stay crunchy

cheese: I buy the big ol' bags of shredded cheese at Costco. I use it, reseal the bag or keep the cheese in a canister.

Meats: I use the foodsaver to do quick marination of meat. When you pull the air out of the bag, you suck the marinate into the meat

I have never had frost bite or bad odor from my foodsaver bags. I can't say the same for ziploc. I have never watched the video...LOL...didn't know there was one! My dad uses his daily as well. The canisters you can buy are the real bonus. Food stays fresher so much longer! Dad cooks up big batches of soup and it stays much longer than normal. He hates to freeze portions (as do I).

Next to my coffeepot, my foodsaver is the most used small appliance

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I have a FoodSaver. I used it a few times when I first got it, but haven't used it now in about a year.

I think the refill bags are too expensive to use all the time.